Blown bottles especially blown plastic bottles are now commonly used for packaging a variety of consumer products including soft drink beverages. In the fabrication of blown plastic bottles, a bottle preform is fabricated and subsequently blown into a full-size bottle. Both the bottle preform and the bottle itself have rounded bottoms and are not easily conveyed in an upright manner by conventional handling equipment. Nevertheless, upright conveying is highly desirable for convenient interfacing with other machines at each end of the conveying section involved in the bottle/preform fabrication. And so belt conveyors, bulk conveyors, or side conveyors for bottles and preforms are not satisfactory. Moreover, the plastic bottle or preform is easily scratched during handling and accordingly existing conveyors are additionally unsuitable for handling the bottles and preforms. Bulk and side conveying of the preforms and bottles causes unacceptable damage to their threads and sealing surfaces.